“Some composers are more interested in composition itself, just to find a different technique, which is also interesting, but [I want to know] how does it express what’s happening in life? Contemporary music, in that sense, to me is very important.”
Archives for March 2016
ISIS Is Driven From Palmyra; Archaeologists Think Some Of The Destruction Can Be Reversed
“Syrian troops on Sunday regained Palmyra, and for the first time since May 2015, when ISIS took the city famed for its 2,000-year-old temples and Greco-Roman ruins, the extent of damage inside the UNESCO World Heritage Site became apparent. ‘We were expecting the worst,’ Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria’s antiquities chief, [said]. ‘But the landscape, in general, is in good shape.'”
Fort Worth Symphony Musicians Occupy Management’s Offices
“Fort Worth Symphony musicians staged a sit-in at symphony offices near Bass Hall on Thursday after management canceled upcoming contract negotiation meetings, they said. Symphony management and union representatives met earlier this month and had agreed to additional meetings over the next two weeks. However, the meetings were canceled without being rescheduled.”
Library Scofflaws – Why Some Get Fined, Some Get Forgiven, And Some Get Arrested
“Over the years, libraries have fined patrons for not bringing back books and offered no-questions-asked return periods. They’ve published the names of book scofflaws in local newspapers. They’ve paid personal calls on people who hold onto books past their due dates, and even sicced the police on particularly recalcitrant readers. And they still don’t really know how to get their books back.”
When Julie Kent Runs Washington Ballet, She’ll Actually Have A Lighter Schedule Than Before
“The new job’s best perk: weekends. She and [husband Victor] Barbee will work Monday through Friday for the first time in their professional lives. (ABT’s workweek is Tuesday-Saturday, meaning Sunday is the only day the family has together.) Their workdays will end at 6 p.m., rather than at 7 with ABT. The two [currently] travel separately some 10 weeks of the year – she to audition students, he to accompany ABT on tour – meaning more splintering of the family.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.28.16
The Old and the New Dancing Together
In a program essay by Susan Yung for the Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance season (through April 3), guest choreographer Doug Elkins mentions that Taylor’s Esplanade was the first dance he ever saw on PBS’s Dance in America and … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-03-28
Once in a lifetime
I went to see the Paul Taylor Dance Company (it’s changed its name, but I can’t get used to the new one) at Lincoln Center on Saturday afternoon. Regular readers of this blog may recall … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-03-28
Indy Decides to Outsource Exhibition Decisions
For the last few years, the Indianapolis Museum of Art has, it seems to me, been on a crazy trajectory. As soon as it does something smart, it turns around and undermines itself. Now it… … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-03-28
The Strange Case of Orwell’s Typewriter
My curiosity was aroused by this sentence: His manual typewriter — rather suitably, in the light of his faint anarchist leanings — was later bestowed by Sonia on the 1960s hippy-radical news-sheet, the International Times.… … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-03-28
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How Should The National African American Museum Handle Bill Cosby?
Not the way it’s been planning to, say accusers.
A Tenor’s Rare Met Encore And What It Means
“We did five performances and right from the first one you could actually see what was happening with the public,” he says. “And as we say in the theater, ‘What the public demands, you give.'”
This Funding Freeze For Natural History Museums Is Making Scientists Pretty Angry
“Although the NSF invests a lot of other money into cataloguing and studying life on Earth, the CSBR is unique in funding the infrastructure behind natural history museums. It pays for unglamorous but essential things like basic specimen care and storage. Typical grants are worth around $3 to 5 million, and collectively, they amount to just 0.06 percent of the full NSF budget. And yet, they’re crucial.”
The Play That Succeeds By Actively Anti-Marketing Itself
“There’s something slightly perverse about a play that asks you to attend simply on faith and not to reveal its secrets, because most any arts marketer will tell you that word of mouth is essential for sales.”
The Programmer Who Broke The Internet By Deleting A Tiny Piece Of Code
“‘I think I have the right of deleting all my stuff,’ Koçulu wrote on March 20 in an email that was later made public. And then he did it.”
The Architects Whose Folk Museum Was Destroyed Are Now Causing Controversy With Their Own Renovation
“‘The Charles Moore building is being unnecessarily violated,’ said Robert A. M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture. ‘It’s a terrible irony that Tod and Billie are caught in this situation, considering that they were so visibly upset about the demolition of their Folk Art Museum.'”
Therapeutic Opera, Coming To A House Near You
“The gist is this: contact the Opera Helps phoneline with a personal problem, and they will endeavour to send a singer to your house. Said singer will briefly discuss the issue with you, select a suitable aria that addresses it, then perform it for you while you relax in familiar surroundings: on a comfortable chair, for instance, or even in bed.”
The Artist Who Has To Do His Work Between Heartbeats (Literally)
“Based in a tiny studio in the jewelry quarter in Birmingham, Short has also inscribed a quote from Abraham Lincoln on the tip of a Civil War bullet, one from Rosa Parks on the rim of a commemorative medal, and one from Steve Jobs on a gold microchip the size of a fingertip.”
In One Week, ‘Making A Murderer’ Crushed Every Other TV Show Out There
But the real interesting thing is that it didn’t do this in its first week, making the argument that maybe, just maybe, everyone should start looking at TV show popularity data way farther out from release dates.
Musicians Probably Need Resilience Training
Because it’s tough out there. “Each concert we produce is a battle on our own frontline with our own increasing expectations and with an ever more discerning audience that will likely be anticipating a CD-level performance. Every piece we write is a wrestling match with the achievements of our predecessors, our heroes, and our own internal struggles. “
This Cleaning Guy Has A Double Life As A Prizewinning Novelist
“‘It is a peculiarity of capitalists and the bourgeoisie to think that we workers have no culture,’ says the novelist, whose many tattoos include one of Karl Marx on his left arm.”
Writer And ‘Free Spirit’ Jim Harrison Has Died At 78
“He was perhaps the leading exponent of the small subgenre in which shotguns and shoe leather play a far greater role than balsamic reduction.”
The Rebel Start-up Opera Companies Taking The Met Head-On
“The Met, despite its perpetual financial struggles, shows no signs of capsizing. Though dozens of competitors have come and gone, it lumbers on, embattled but essential. What it offers—and what no pocket-sized company, however edgy, can match—is an acoustical environment commensurate with the grandeur of the form. To hear an unamplified voice surmounting a full orchestra and pinging across a large space is an elemental thrill that lies somewhere between high culture and extreme sports.”
The Ballet Company That Doesn’t Pretend Compulsory Heterosexuality Is Real
“The word ‘Ballez’ was born, initially as a joke. We thought, ‘What could be more ridiculous than downtown, queer dancers expressing their values in a ballet?'”
A Von Trapp Tries To Bring New Energy To Old Rodgers And Hammerstein Songs
Elizabeth von Trapp “listened as Vermont musician Christopher Peterman led ‘The Sound of Music’ not with the sweeping orchestral music fans of that movie are used to, but with a wistful saxophone that tapped into something deeper. That was just what she was looking for.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs For 03.27.16
How Relevant is My Arts Organization? Take this Self-Test!
AJBlog: Audience WantedPublished 2016-03-27 David Baker, 1931-2016
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2016-03-27
*This is the second essay in a series of four “We the Audience” posts designed to introduce my readers to the citizen artists working in some of South Africa’s most challenged areas. Today’s essay focuses… … read more
AJBlog: We The AudiencePublished 2016-03-27
Once upon a time — in Vermont, of all places — Sinclair Lewis sat down to write a counterfactual satire about American politics. Never having cracked the book myself, I’m grateful to Chris Braithwaite for… … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2016-03-25
The Existential Arts – This Week’s Best Reads On ArtsJournal
This week’s best reads oddly hover around existential questions. What arts organizations should exist? Does truth exist? Can theatre really change anything, and should it even try? Canada’s new government makes a big existential bet on the arts. And do our tools define art?
Making Art About A Community In Crisis
“They wanted me to tell the public how they showed love. How they sacrificed for each other. How they took care of a disabled homie, gave his family money after he was crippled by a gunshot blast. Or how they would pay for his funeral if he was killed. How they would discourage younger siblings from joining the gang. How they stuck by each other. They had their own code of love. I promised to write about it.”
The Hero Architect Who Built Fine Public Housing In London – And The Penguin Pool At The Zoo
“Lubetkin wanted buildings to empower people. ‘Architecture can be a potent weapon,’ he wrote, ‘a committed driving force on the side of enlightenment, aiming however indirectly at the transformation of our present make-believe society, where images outstrip reality and rewards outpace achievement.'”